


Broken Wings

by Sid45ultra



Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: ALL ON BOARD THE PAIN TRAIN, Angst, Destroy Ending, F/M, Graphic Violence, Mass Effect 3, Sad, canon character death, graphic death, tragic, triggering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 21:30:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13866396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sid45ultra/pseuds/Sid45ultra
Summary: In the aftermath of the Reaper War, the crew of the Normandy search for Commander Shepard's body. What they find isn't exactly dead.





	Broken Wings

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is more of my depression writing fics for me. Thus it is angsty and dark. I (kinda) proof read it, and it is unbetaed. I find pumping out a depressing fic and publishing it helps me feel better.

Garrus was exhausted. He hadn’t slept in over twenty-four human hours, spending the entire time searching for some trace of Shepard in the wreckage of the Crucible. The great space station had come crashing down very shortly after the human spectre had ended the Reaper War. Since then the creations of the Reapers had all shut down, husks and brutes alike simply going dark. All efforts had turned to search, rescue, and triage. Garrus and the crew of the Normandy had been searching for their Commander’s body, though none of them would admit out loud what they were searching for. Liara found Shepard first. Garrus would never forget the sound of her screams when she recognized the shock of red hair half burned away.

It was a miracle Shepard’s body had survived reentry, but her head, torso, and right arm were intact and her military tags were still around her neck. Garrus would have given the human up for dead as soon as he saw her. Shepard had survived so much, she’d come back from death like something out of a legend, weapon in hand, fierce grin on her face, pulling him out of the fire more times than he could count. Liara wouldn’t accept her death, she’d pressed her forehead to Shepard’s blackened one attempting to make a connection. Garrus’s heart had nearly stopped when Liara cried out

“She’s alive!” He didn’t believe it. Shepard was missing everything below the waist, blood soaking the ground around her. He could see shards of bone protruding from the shoulder where her arm was gone, muscle and sinew stuck to her side in dried blood. There were no entrails, whatever had removed her legs had ripped most of them away. Shepard should have been dead, and yet, at Liara’s words, he couldn’t deny the shallow rise of the Commander’s chest under the armor that had melted into the flesh.

“Get a medic!” Garrus cried as he scrambled over debris to hold Shepard, his Shepard, in his arms. She was unconscious, but closer now, he could hear her ragged breaths.

“I’m here.” He whispered, “You’re safe. I’m here.” For the first time Garrus wished turians could cry like humans. He wanted to shed tears of horror and tears of joy as he slowly rocked the human in his arms. He didn’t know how long he held her, whispering comforting words into her scorched hair, pressing his face as close as he could. A medical team arrived and Garrus had to be gently dragged away from the woman he loved. He watched them strap her to a stretcher and begin emergency care on the spot to stabilize her. No one told him no as he followed the medical team to the battlefield care facility.

He didn’t know Liara was beside him until the asari pulled him out of the way of a doctor attempting to help the galaxy’s greatest hero. He watched for hours as they did everything they could to increase Shepard’s chances of survival. He drifted in and out of consciousness as they worked, sitting on the ground beside the plastic partition keeping him out of the operating room. Liara was asleep beside him, short tentacles twitching every now and again as she dreamed.

Garrus didn’t know how long he sat in the dirt, hoping for news of Shepard’s chances. He knew it was slim. It had taken Cerberus two years to bring Shepard back, and that had been with the best medical and scientific minds and facilities money could buy. What hope did a group of battle wearied surgeons have? He scratched at the scars littering his face, pushing back memories of life without Shepard. He’d lost hope, they all had. Their beacon had been taken from them and without her they were all cast adrift. The galaxy could endure without her. Garrus wasn’t sure he could.

Footsteps approached and the Turian sniper scrambled to his feet. The movement jostled Liara awake and she rose with him. A surgeon stood before them, white smock turned crimson. She looked exhausted, the horror of war etched forever into her young face.

“We did what we could, but the damage is extensive.” She began, voice low and raw. “She is heavily sedated, but lucid. If you want to speak to her, I would recommend you do it now.”

Liara looked up at Garrus, eyes bright with hope. She was either too tired to read the doctor’s expression, or she was denying the truth outright. He suspected it was the latter. Garrus led the Asari into the operating room, feet dragging with every step. Part of him wanted to run, to crawl into a hole and never come out. He knew that if he did, he would regret it until his dying breath.

The room stank of bleach and blood. The doctors had cleared away most of their medical apparatus, leaving behind an archaic IV drip to stave away the worst of the pain. A white plastic sheet covered Shepard’s torso, hiding the worst of her injuries. Bandages wrapped her head, but her face was mostly visible. Her eyes stared blankly ahead, missing the spark Garrus had come to love. For a moment he thought she had already passed, but then her eyes slowly rolled towards him and the corners of her lips tugged into a mockery of a smile.

Behind Garrus, Liara stifled a sob. He had almost forgotten she was there. Shepard’s haunted eyes slowly moved onto Liara and the archeologist froze midstep.

“Shepard...I...Oh Goddess.” she whispered. Garrus didn’t bother to look behind him as Liara fled the tent, too overwhelmed to see her closest friend as empty as the husks outside. The Turian continued his trek forward, pulled like a planet in orbit towards the star that he had been allowed to touch.

“I’m here.” He whispered when he was close enough to count what freckles were left on her burned cheeks.

“I’m here.”

Shepard’s mouth moved silently, the breath barely able to escape her lungs. Garrus leaned forward to hear what she was trying to say.

“Hurts.” She whispered.

“I know it does. But don’t worry, the doctors are going to fix you. It will stop hurting, I promise.” Garrus said, the lies coming easy to his lips. Shepard had always been able to see through his bullshit. It was a talent she had always possessed. Even now, she knew the truth when he tried to hide it from her. She smiled weakly again and slowly shook her head. Her eyes rolled to the plastic bag holding the drip. The fluid was slightly milky, saline combined, no doubt, with some form of morphine. Old Earth medicine, barbaric anywhere that wasn’t a battlefield.

“I can’t.” Garrus croaked, the pain seizing his throat and strangling his voice. “Please don’t ask me to.”

Shepard’s mouth moved again, weaker this time. Garrus leaned in closer, straining to hear her words. He shuddered as the warm breath ghosted over his fringe and the words left Shepard’s lips. He straightened mechanically and turned to the drip. It was connected to a machine controlling the flow of both substances. It didn’t take long for him to figure out which was which. A deft turn of a knob, less force than pulling a trigger, and he stripped away what mattered most to him in the galaxy.

“I love you too.” he whispered.


End file.
